Of these, the most expensive was the Age Exchange takeover of Blackheath Library. The building is now a community centre and a cafe. £500k came from city financiers, £200k from Lewisham council and £30k from the Blackheath Assembly. It’s transfer saved the council £75k per year. It’s book issues since takeover are below:

One the face of it, that’s not an impressive advertisement either, although it is fair to say that books are now also just a sideline for New Cross, with their website making clear that they are doing a whole load of extra activities such as dance and film as well as learning and library services. Unlike the other four looked at, New Cross is one where volunteers (rather than an existing organisation) took over the building – it was reopened in September 2011 which explains the deep dip in the two preceding months. Let’s look now at the three taken over by Eco Computer Systems:

So what can we tell of these five new examples of the performance of volunteer-run libraries? The evidence, on the face of it, is clear that they are not as successful as the council-run services that have gone before. In terms of book lending, these examples suggest a near halving in use as the best case and a decline of six-sevenths as the worst. That, even in the current national picture of an overall decline in book-lending, is genuinely poor but it’s also not especially surprising. These are new organisations, often unpaid, taking over a well-established and comparatively well-funded service.

On the other hand, they’re clearly better than no library at all and they’re also offering more services than the council did. In that way, they’re not strictly comparable with what came before, which is the crux of the matter. You see, as book-lending libraries none of the six examples seen before (Walcot in Swindon if the sixth) are anywhere near as successful as the council libraries before. The new owners have either as a matter of expediency or of policy had to change or expand the basic service in order to survive. Public libraries don’t cover their running costs and were never meant to. They were supposed to provide free books and information for all as a universal equalising right to information, education, literacy and also to some extent as social welfare. That’s hardly a successful business model if one wants to cover costs. The fact that withdrawn libraries are being pushed forward as a viable alternative is therefore, in part, misleading. They can be viable but only if they turn into something else – I’m not saying the something else is better or worse , I’m just saying it’s different. Likewise, I am not attacking those taking over these libraries: they are all doing a hard (often unpaid) job in difficult circumstances. Rather, I am attacking those who suggest that somehow libraries are thriving and modernising and ignore what is happening in reality.

I will leave the final thought to Alan Templeton who very kindly supplied me with the charts included here:

“We now have six examples of poor to terrible performance by community libraries based on hard data, but no example of good performance. The evidence is beginning to accumulate for an imminent national disaster. Although it is too early to be absolutely certain about the outcome, policy makers need to start taking notice of what is happening in the real world and react accordingly.” Alan Templeton, Camden Public Library User’s Group.

Note: This article slightly edited on Sunday to add additional material about New Cross and to improve the description of the trends of the Eco libraries.

Salley Vickers on tour of Cathedral cities (press release) “The Reading Agency, which works with publishers and libraries to create successful and exciting events and activities for readers, used its extensive contacts within the UK’s public library network to invite libraries to approach their local cathedrals about hosting an event and planing joint promotion, and then bid to play host to Salley Vickers.”

Desmond Clarke -Chief Executive UK public library service – Good Library Blog. “Desmond didn’t finish his brilliance thirty years ago. He has a career which includes some of the most important jobs in publishing both here and in the US. And for ten years he has campaigned for the restoration of the public library service. He deserves so much more respect for his library work than he gets – and that is why these current newspaper articles are so heartening. In truth Desmond could be chief executive of the public library service and we would all be better off.”

Gagged library workers – Stop the privatisation of public libraries. Library staff are are asked not to discuss cuts or ask people to comment as, as one council puts it, ““We should avoid actively encouraging people to complain as this will undermine the value of the comments the council receives if it becomes known.”. Examples from Southampton, Doncaster and Gloucestershire – “If you want to speak out against your own authority then do it through the union, you could risk being disciplined or sacked if you do it alone but there is nothing stopping you speaking up and out about other authorities and policy makers, in fact why aren’t you?”

How has the Granta list shaped the literary landscape? – BBC. The influential list was dreamt up by library campaigner Desmond Clarke “in the bath” thirty years ago [He now assures me he is now into “power showers” – Ed.]. “With the backing of bookshops and libraries, the first Best of Young British promotion helped sell an additional 250,000 books. “Before the campaign some of the books had only sold a few hundred,” notes Clarke. “Many of them were not published in paperback.””

Qualified librarians ‘vital in maintaining a knowledge society’ – Voxy (New Zealand). “LIANZA President, Heather Lamond, said the end result of de-professionalising library positions or moving the responsibilities elsewhere will be a degradation of services and the required expertise needed to run a complex and specialised branch of the Council.”

Toronto Public Library Enters Alternate Reality (Gaming)– Library Journal (Canada). Great way to publicise libraries and reading in a different fashion including telephone messages. “The event is open to everyone whether they completed the missions or not, but those who did will be celebrated as a hero or champion of the resistance.”

Birmingham – Another library service going private? – Library Campaign. “The contract starts ‘no later than’ 3 September this year. It includes decommissioning the old library and transferring the stock to the new mega-library AND getting in ‘private investment’ AND ’participating[ing] actively in economic, social and environmental regeneration of the locality’. Applications had to be on 8 March.Good luck, Birmingham, with finding someone to do all that in 6 months flat”

Bradford – Saved Wilsden library is flourishing – Keighley News. ““We’ve got a core of 14 to 15 volunteers, who provide a good service for the village. The library is only open one day a week, which is what we had when Bradford ran it.”

Camden – Actor Simon Callow backs ‘sexy’ Hampstead library with one-man show – Ham & High. ““For me, libraries have always been extremely glamorous places. I have always found them sexy and full of allure. That particular little one [Keats Community Library] is such a charming, welcoming and elegant little place. It would be terrible to see it go.””. Mr Callow is on the board of one volunteer library.

East Ayrshire – New Library in Auchinleck is opening! – Cunnock Chronicle. “The custom-built library is bright, spacious and very well-equipped. Built to the same design and high standards as the recently renovated Stewarton, Crosshouse and Cumnock libraries, the new library in Auchinleck provides a welcoming environment and quality services for people of all ages.”

“The council says not many people currently use the service, but this holds little weight with the 180 people who do. “They don’t realise [what cutting the service will mean to people like me],” said Mrs Hurtt, “and there’s more than me in this position.”

Inverclyde – Village library moving – Inverclyde Now. “renamed Inverkip and Wemyss Bay Library and will begin operating in its new home on Tuesday (16 April) at 3.30pm. The library has moved from Inverkip Primary school to Wemyss Bay Primary to allow the expansion of Inverkip’s nursery. The library will return to Inverkip when the new village community centre opens.” … “There will be an improved selection of books and DVDs, photocopying and fax facilities. There will be four free public access computers, plus free wi-fi and a coffee machine. The branch will also host popular Bookbug sessions.”

Lancashire – £30,000 repairs to calm leak fears at Darwen library – This is Lancashire. “Concerns had been raised in the wake of the floods in the town that water could get into the Knott Street building and damage books. And after the first part of scaffolding was erected outside the building on Tuesday, the window repair work is scheduled to begin on April 22.”

Lewisham –“Question Everything They Tell You”– Camden Public Library Users Group, “in spite of massive publicity in favour of the new libraries, no hard example of good performance has been provided by community library advocates. What has been provided is almost entirely waffle and high hopes.”

“We now have six examples of poor to terrible performance by community libraries based on hard data, but no example of good performance. The evidence is beginning to accumulate for an imminent national disaster.”

Moray – MSP Richard Lochhead attacks library closures – Scotsman. “MSP Richard Lochhead today launched a fresh attack on the “folly” of Moray Council’s controversial plans to close seven libraries as part of the strategy to cuts its budget by £30 million over the next three years.” … “The simple fact is only one other library in the whole of Scotland is closing this year while Moray’s Tory, Independent and Labour councillors have supported the closure of seven.”

Norfolk – Library staff are the tops in county awards – Lynn News. “Workers at the Gaywood Library received the People’s Choice award for customer focus at the outstanding contribution awards (OSCAs), which are organised to recognise the work of Norfolk County Council staff. More than 500 people voted for a shortlist of five finalists, with the library team receiving 42 per cent of the votes.”

North Somerset – Minister praises Town Hall library – Mercury. “Ed Vaizey MP, minister for culture, communications and creative industries, unveiled a plaque as he officially opened the library at lunchtime. He praised North Somerset Council and leader Nigel Ashton for bringing together a facility that not only houses a library, but also has offers council services and deals with police enquiries.”

“Through working together and improving the range of services on offer, the library has not only been protected but will be more efficient in the long-term.” Ed Vaizey

This entry was posted by Ian Anstice on April 13, 2013 at 5:03 pm, and is filed under Uncategorized. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Community libraries can work, ours does and it is totally run by volunteers. However there has to be much more work put into the library by the volunteers in order to maintain membership. There have to be up to date books available, displayed very well, the library has to be bright, interesting, never allowed to appear drab or cold as some County libraries have over the past years, and catering for all. It is not easy, but it can be done with a bit of dedication and hard work. It would be great to keep all the libraries, many good workers have had to find other employment, many volunteers would love to hand everything bak to the County hands – let’s face it the Volunteers are paying Council tax and doing the job themselves!! Unfortunately it is not possible so it is a case of making the best of what we have and get on with it, with minimal moaning, depressive reports and generally grinding the axe regarding job losses. Life throws out problems, we have to deal with them, even if we don’t want to.

Quite right too. The sad thing about the current situation is that people like yourself are having to work hard at something which before was provided by council tax. What worries me is when passing libraries to other organisations or volunteers are somehow suggested to show that there is no crisis. If you have statistics for usage of your library, I’d like to add them to the pot. Regards, Ian.

Ian, If it is any help lending at my local library – Chalfont St Giles Community Library – has increased nearly 40% over the six years (2007 to 2012) that the library has been run by volunteers.[source: Friends of the Library newsletters]. Book lending is currently about the same as when the County Council ran the library in 2006 (it is a small library with c. 20,000 book issues annually). The library now has more books and is open significantly longer than the old Council Library. This has offset the absence of local paid staff and the national decline in book lending. The low cost ‘community partnership’ approach for the smaller libraries in Bucks seems to be working OK as far as I can see.

That’s also useful. Thanks, Mike. Do you have the stats for that and I will give it the same prominence? I have no doubt that the Buckinghamshire libraries are more successful and it would be useful. The thing that annoys me at the moment is when the data is just not available.

Maggie and Mike make interesting points. It is generally accepted that the volunteer-run library of Chalfont St Giles is a success. It is not clear from Maggie which library she is referring to though and it would be helpful to know.

I do hope Mike and Maggie provide the stats so Ian can add this detail to his site. I’d also love to hear what those running successful volunteer-run libraries feel contributed to that success. Are there certain factors that are key or, with determination, could volunteer-run libraries work anywhere?

I’ve a particular interest in this as a trustee of The Library Campaign ( www. librarycampaign.com) as we are currently working up a contacts list, as part of our work with Speak Up for Libraries ( www. speakupforlibraries.org), in order to put interested parties in contact with each other and to point out similar models when communities are exploring all options in order to save their library service.

All praise to those who work hard to make community-managed libraries work.
But I don’t think any would argue that they PREFER knocking themselves out AND still paying taxes, for a service that used to be provided. And I’d add that properly skilled library staff add an extra dimension that’s impossible to replace.
The next issue of The Library Campaign magazine will explore some of this real stuff.
Among the contents is a piece by Jim Brooks, of Little Chalfont Community Library – another well-known success, close to Chalfont St Giles.
He always states that a professional library is ALWAYS the best option. And that nobody ever takes on a library unless they are given no choice. what works in a pretty affluent Bucks village probably won’t work elsewhere.
We need to counter the extraordinary government propaganda that libraries can be closed in their hundreds, and everything will automatically be just dandy, everywhere, no matter what.
Laura Swaffield
Chairhttp://www.librarycampaign.com

No one is suggesting life will be dandy, but less libraries and librarians there certainly will be. This is because local councils are having to make cuts, and will continue to make cuts. If community libraries can play a part if keeping libraries open outside of council provided services, then that surely is a good thing. Unless you know a way in which councils could make the cuts and keep libraries open. Perhaps they could cut another service instead? Maybe you’d like to suggest which ones? Of perhaps stand for council in those areas where libraries are being closed on a “Keep Libraries Open” ticket? Then you’ll have put your money where your mouth is and will be able to go into power and decide what to cut and what not to cut.

Ah, but are you buying into the message that cuts are essential? Many are not. Councils find money when they consider it priority.

I’ve seen the figures for Croydon, for example. Huge back office costs were identified in the Croydon libraries budget; unnecessary costs and costly contacts disproportionately loaded on the libraries budget. These were identified by Tim Coates, who spoke at a Shadow Cabinet meeting early on in the process.

The council ignore residents’ views and suggestions, the expert advice from Tim Coates and the other ideas put forward by Croydon Labour on libraries and push to outsource the whole network.

Back door cuts were made to staffing and book stock, resulting in a greatly reduced service. How the remaining library staff cope with the stress of the situation and keep smiling no one knows ; true professionalism in the face of total lack of support from the council who employ them.

Yet Croydon Council has built a new council building, supposedly at nil cost, thanks to John Laing and friends. The council plan to furnish it with a mere £3.1 mill in small change, found down the back of the council sofa, no doubt. Croydon administration claim the cost of moving furniture from the existing council offices, literally on the other side of the road, would cost only £1 mill less. See http://insidecroydon.com/2013/03/25/3-1m-on-hqs-furniture-is-value-for-money-in-croydon/ for details. It beggars belief!

At the same time they have no money for libraries? I just don’t believe it!

Nobody’s saying that cuts don’t have to be made. Just that closing branch libraries is a really dumb way to do it. They cost peanuts to run, and make the service accessible to those who need it most. In most library authorities there is better scope for savings via more efficient purchasing, cutting unnecessary layers of management, sharing support services etc etc – there are lists of good ideas right here on the PLN website.
Cutting branches (or hiving them off to volunteers) should the last resort – not the first and only idea.http://www.librarycampaign.com

Libraries are capital intensive buildings that require a lot of maintenance. They are only going to get more expensive.

I am not saying shut them, I am just pointing out the naivety in the arguments of many of their defenders, which means that those defenders can easily be ignored by those in power – their arguments so often fly in the face of reality that they can be dismissed out of hand.

In any case, Laura, you have just proved my point. You have said “no one denies that cuts have to be made” and then go on to say that libraries should not be the subject of those cuts. Well, councils are doing ALL of those things that you list (interesting that when there was a programme in 2010 suggesting just these things that campaigners dismissed it out of hand) and they will still only have money for social services if current trends continue. So, given this, what would you cut instead of the library?

What programme in 2010 was that??
Do you mean the daft DCMS-backed Future Libraries Programme, which encouraged 10 assorted very elaborate schemes to share this or that? They incurred heavy costs upfront – not a good idea right now. Over a year later, the MLA’s report found that none had really got anywhere yet. Since then, some have just disappeared without trace. (see Library Campaign magazine no 82, p.14-15, on our homepage).
Meanwhile, a free-to-enter, cheap-to-run, very flexible local building that did all the stuff libraries do would be a massive resource for public health, education, independent living and, yes, social services.
As for what to cut instead – depends where you are, innit?http://www.librarycampaign.com

“10 assorted very elaborate schemes ” . I’ve gone back and read these reports, and the Library Campaigner, and it’s clear that this publication was encouraging back office sharing and merging of library authorities. Which is exactly what you are calling for above. Why are these ideas OK when you say them but not Ok when others do? The report that I have found which your article also refers to makes the very valid point that these sort of changes require up front investment to make the changes (which anyone who has run a multi million pound service knows) is inevitable when you talk about that level of change. You have to speculate to accumulate. I suspect you’ve not actually ever run a multi million pound service, hence you have completely misunderstood this point.

Oh Dandy, what are you on?
Have you ever run a multi-million pound service that says: “Hey, let’s serve our customers better by closing most of our outlets” ?
Have you ever run a multi-million pound service that had its budget hacked by a third, in front-loaded cuts that left no time to plan cuts properly – let alone “speculate to accumulate”. Not a hope.
The huge, lumbering mega-mergers that were advocated in that report had cost lotsa money & as yet given zero returns. Many have run into the ground completely since then.
We advocate small, sensible stuff like sharing a specialist department (law, HR etc) or a contract (maintenance, equipment purchase) with a neighbouring borough, or buying smarter, or filleting the layers of upper managers dealing with “strategy” & other weird stuff.
Small, often part-time, local libraries where people can reach them cost peanuts by comparison.

It is perfectly possible to achieve 28% savings in the public library service and not close a branch library- in fact even with those cuts it would be possible to add to the service offered – and I have run large businesses.

Look at the cipfa stats for the management costs, service support and other expenditure and as Tim says the 28% cuts would be easy to do without closing or cutting the staff in a single library. Its crazy that in every single council up and down the land they duplicate the exact same work. In my own area in Oxfordshire the HQ of the library service is 17 miles away from the HQ of the library service in Bucks and both of these management structures and service support costs are completely duplicated without any sharing. Think of any business that tried to compete in the real world while maintaining this level of duplication, it wouldn’t last five minutes. This is the thing that angers me most about the debate, yes there are massive cuts to councils budgets and there isn’t anything we can do about it because if Labour were in charge we would be having the same conversation but, the fact that officers and ill-informed councillors both in cabinet and the scrutiny committees are too lazy or to stupid to actual question what the officers are telling them and cutting the small branch libraries where the low paid assistants and managers work, not the HQ’s and support services where the high paid “librarians” and bean counters work. Also in the tories case specifically they should be rebuking this big society nonsense that came down from Cameron that he didn’t get a mandate for but with a couple of exceptions they are towing the party line for a policy that has no evidence base for working in libraries, policy should be based on evidence and civil servants are breaking the civil service code by going along unquestioning with this nonsense. I’m very, very angry because the tail is wagging the dog and when these volunteer libraries fail or start to decline as I have seen first hand in Swindon then it will be a further excuse to cut the library service more. Yes some will survive and a few may thrive but not everyone has a pool of intelligent, articulate and wealthy volunteers like some libraries have. We are not going to get out of this economic mess by cutting libraries and making our citizens less well read and intelligent, we should be building more like the competition in the developing countries are doing. Its a shame most councillors don’t read (at least the ones I have met), perhaps that’s the campaign we should be doing, its how the Christians managed to avoid persecution by the Romans after all by converting them.

There appears to be an issue with the comments system at the moment so I have posted this directly via a request from email from Shirley Burnham:

There will be an article, by Trevor Craig (Oxfordshire) and Shirley Burnham (Swindon) in the next issue of The Library Campaign magazine – citing evidence which suggests there are deep flaws in the notion that the ‘volunteer model’ for public libraries should be the way forward.

Extracts:
“Libraries are supposed to be completely free from conflicts of interest. Like the Civil Service, they were envisaged as impartial and neutral. But small groups of individuals, given a free hand, will always have views that can compromise those principles. This is why public libraries have been, and should continue to be, a major cornerstone of democracy, untainted by ideology and ‘isms’. ”
“There are legitimate issues of accountability related to all the above. If the local library is doing something wrong who is accountable? In a fully supported library, councillors and officers are responsible. If the library is, instead, led by local co-operation, social entrepreneurship or another group, there is no accountability via the ballot box. As a result, a library could well be used to push volunteers’ own agendas – and who could stop them?”

And
*shameless plug*
all members of The Library Campaign receive a copy of the magazine by post. The May issue Ian refers to may now be pushed back to June so we can cover the launch of new research on public libraries undertaken by Steve Davies and Unison too.

There are currently 3850 libraries in the UK (CIPFA figures for 2015/16). There were 4023 in 2013/14, 4482 in 2009/10 and 4622 in 2003/4.
....
The complete list is on "Tally by Local Authority" page as are other changes to budgets such as cuts to hours, bookfund and staffing. CIpfa have calculated that 121 service points lost in 2015/16, 106 service points were lost in 2014/15, 49 were lost in 2013/14, 74 were lost in 2012/13, 201 in 2011/12, 33 in 2010/11.
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For a list of new and refurbished buildings see this page,

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